WANZHOU (SE): Twenty university students from poor families received financial aid on August 23 from the diocese of Wanzhou in Sichuan province, mainland China, as part of a campaign to help children from poorer families to get an education.

The initiative is part of the Let us give a hand to fulfill the dream of study campaign launched by the Catholic community of Wanzhou, to give an educational opportunity to the...

Anger is brewing among the Catholic laity in India, especially those of the Latin Rite. The fresh air that Pope Francis has brought to the universal Church has fanned a ferment, born of increasing frustration over laypeople’s perception that bishops, both individually and collectively, have chosen not to respond to their various appeals over the years.

HONG KONG (SE) : The first encyclical to bear the signature of Pope Frances, The Light of Faith (Lumen Fidei), has become a best seller in Italy chalking up 200,000 sales since it was released on July 5.

ANSA reports that the Vatican publisher, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, says that the figure does not include sales by unauthorised publishers.

KATHMANDU (AsiaNews): The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority in Kathmandu has arrested 22 senior Nepali officials and two Chinese suppliers on suspicion of corruption, AsiaNews reported on August 23.

This has raised concerns in China that it may create a negative image of its foreign export business and Beijing is putting pressure on the authorities in Kathmandu to hush the matter up.

NEW DELHI (UCAN): The lower house of the Indian parliament passed the Food Security Bill on August 26, aimed at dramatically lowering the price of staple grain for around 800 million people across the country.

The bill still needs upper house approval, but if passed, it will provide beneficiaries with five kilogrammes of subsidised rice every month.

HONG KONG (SE): The Canossian Sisters in Hong Kong and Macau held a provincial chapter between August 15 and 25 under the theme, Look and do likewise… that the world may believe—called to be joyful and prophetic witnesses.

The provincial chapter this year also served as the first phase for the local province to prepare to participate in the worldwide general chapter of the Canossian Daughters of Charity, which...

BEIJING (AsiaNews): In response to the appeal for peace in Syria and the Middle East, two officials in the Chinese government were quoted by AsiaNews on September 3 as saying his words are “wise and true, and we Chinese are with him.”

The two officials from a department which deals with culture and religion wish to remain anonymous, but praised the pope, even comparing his simplicity and wisdom with that of...

HONG KONG (SE): There may well be people trying to incite violence if the Occupy Central movement does block the streets of Central next year, the former bishop of Hong Kong, Joseph Cardinal Zen Ze-kiun, told Greg Torode and James Pomfret from Reuters on August 27.

Cardinal Zen has said that he would join the movement to occupy the central business district of the city and calls it a last resort, as he does not believe...

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Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ

“Living the truth in love, we should grow in every way into him
who is the head, Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, with the proper functioning of each part, brings about the body’s growth and...